Foodography #1: Papayas
Man built most nobly when limitations were at their greatest.
-- Frank Lloyd Wright
Maybe that's just me, but I'm at my most creative when options are limited, because I have to be imaginative to work within the constraints. Sam and Andrew have created a new event, Foodography, to bring out the best of our imagination and creativity by challenging food photographers each month to take photos on a shared theme. LIke a magnifying glass before the sun, the theme limits and focuses energies. We then offer the results for critique and appreciation. What a great way to improve the quality of our food photography!
The theme for this first time around: Oranges Aren't the Only Fruit. I decided to stick to a literal interpretation and photograph a non-citrus, orange-colored fruit. A stroll through Chinatown gave two options: persimmons and red papayas. The latter called out, appealing to both my stomach and my eye.
If you click through, please feel free to offer your own critique.
The shoot itself was terribly frustrating, with nothing working as easily as it should. I knew I wanted to use a blue background (the complementary color to orange), to help the foreground "pop." Unfortunately, the only blue on hand came in the form of a too-small, damp bath towel. No matter how I positioned it, the towel never stretched clear across the entire field of view. That forced me to zoom quite close; closer than I'd intended.
Add to the mix a pesky fly trying to eat the papayas and a two year old who wanted to use the towel as a cape, and natural light that waned with each passing cloud. I truly thought I would be hurling fruit at the walls before I got my shot.
In the end, I'm reasonably satisfied with the image, although I'm stopping far short of saying it was, "buit most nobly." The composition is conventional, there's no "story" in the photo and the focus is soft, but the colors are very close to what I'd hoped and I like that the shape of the papaya is almost iconic.
| Camera | Olympus C70 |
|---|---|
| Exposure | 1/15 sec, F2.8, ISO80 |
| Lighting | Natural sun through frosted glass w/ auto white balance |
| Post-processing | Gimp and Photoshop: contrast, saturation, crop/resize, minor touchup |
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Hey! Welcome back! I like your photo, the blue is a great color and adds nice texture. My only critique is that the bottom left corner is too empty, my eye keeps wanting to rest there, and I have to fight to focus on the lovely fruit. Also, maybe a fly on the fruit or a sly toddler peering behind the blue towel would have made a great "story" for the photo. . . ?
Darla, I think you're right about the bottom corner, in part because there's a hot spot there. If I could darken that corner, burn it in a little, that might shift attention back to the center again. In general I don't like "bulls-eye" compositions like this one, but as I mentioned it was all about the color.
As for the toddler and fly... I was so busy avoiding them that I didn't stop to realize they could have made this a dynamic photo. Dang, that was short-sighted.
I don't know much about photography, but your papaya makes me want to book a ticket to HI right now. I've never had papaya as delicious and fragrant as the ones in HI.
Cyndy, that's about the best compliment I could imagine for this photo. Yes, the papayas here are generally better because they don't have to be shipped green and hard as rocks.